Remember when Apple strapped a computer to your face and everyone on the internet lost their collective mind for about eleven minutes?
Well, the Vision Pro is still a thing, and developers have quietly been shoving new apps into the App Store like it's a Black Friday doorbuster nobody asked for.
The pitch has always been the same: this isn't a toy, it's a "spatial computing platform." Translation: it's a very expensive way to watch a movie while pretending your living room is a private IMAX.
Here's the part that'll make you feel old.
When the headset launched, the killer app was... floating windows.
Apps that just hung in the air like unread emails you're avoiding.
Now the ecosystem is filling out with streaming services, 3D design tools, and meditation apps that sense your breathing, because nothing says "I spent rent money on goggles" like being told to inhale deeply by a $3,500 machine.
Virtual desktops, spatial games where you fling objects with your bare hands, and productivity apps that let you arrange twenty browser tabs in midair like a detective in a crime drama.
If you're a 3D artist or a video editor, there's a real argument here.
For the price of one Vision Pro, you could buy a decent laptop, a big monitor, and a used car that runs.
The value proposition is still having a staring contest with your bank account.
The bigger issue is that most of these apps already exist on your phone, your laptop, or your TV.
The Vision Pro versions are usually shinier and occasionally cleverer, but "it looks nicer floating in your living room" is doing a lot of heavy lifting for a device that requires you to strap a battery brick to your hip.
Spatial FaceTime calls where everyone looks like a slightly cursed cartoon avatar are fun exactly once.
Then you go back to regular video calls because you don't want to be the person wearing ski goggles at a dinner party.
Developers seem to be treating this like the Apple Watch in 2015 — a platform that everyone expects to matter eventually, so they show up early and hope the crowd follows.
Apple has a habit of refusing to let a product die until it works.
But the "eventually" is doing a lot of work here too.
Right now, the app library is a mix of genuinely useful tools, tech demos dressed up as products, and a whole genre of "experiences" that are basically glorified screensavers you control with your eyeballs.
If you already own one, the new apps are a nice reason to dust it off instead of using it as the world's most expensive paperweight on your desk.
If you don't own one, nothing in this latest wave is going to make you sprint to the Apple Store.
The headset is in that awkward teenage phase — too expensive to be casual, not mature enough to be essential.
Give it a few years, and maybe we'll all be squinting at floating spreadsheets like it was always normal.
Until then, enjoy your nightlight. **Our take:** The Vision Pro app scene is improving, but "improving" and "worth four figures" are two very different sentences.
If you've got the disposable income and a genuine use case, have fun.
Final Thoughts
If you don't, you're not missing much yet — and your neck is grateful.